Blogroll

More attention needs to be given to COVID-19 patients outside of hospitals where care workers are often poorly-equipped and the sick are dying alone, representatives from Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Italy and Spain said on Monday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in hospital undergoing tests on Monday after suffering persistent coronavirus symptoms for more than 10 days, but the government said he was in good spirits and still in charge.

Mainland China reported 39 new coronavirus cases as of Sunday, up from 30 a day earlier, and the number of asymptomatic cases also surged as the government vowed tighter controls at land borders.

The World Health Organization (WHO) voiced concern on Monday that the wearing of medical masks by the general public could exacerbate the shortage for health workers who are on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The United States entered what an official called the "peak death week" of the coronavirus on Monday while a watchdog report said hospitals were struggling to maintain and expand capacity to care for infected patients.

The U.S. death toll from the novel coronavirus topped 10,000 on Monday, according to a Reuters tally.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday that recent data on the novel coronavirus including hospitalizations and deaths suggest the crisis now hitting the state may be hitting a plateau.

India, like a lot of countries plunged into crisis by the pandemic, is struggling to ramp up testing for the coronavirus, but in few places would the odds of containing the disease appear so bleak should domestic transmission start to multiply.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in hospital undergoing tests on Monday after suffering persistent coronavirus symptoms for more than 10 days, but the government said he was in good spirits and still in charge.

The coronavirus epidemic is "under control" in Norway, the health minister said on Monday, pointing to the low rate of transmission of the disease.

International Business Machines Corp on Monday named former Bank of America Corp top technology executive Howard Boville head of its cloud business, as Arvind Krishna takes over from long-time chief Ginni Rometty.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday acknowledged that members of the task force dealing with the coronavirus crisis clashed over the efficacy of the malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, for use against the disease.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has approved the withdrawal of one billion euros from the country's sovereign wealth fund to help fight the coronavirus epidemic, President Hassan Rouhani's official website said on Monday.

Singapore's health ministry on Monday confirmed 66 more coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of cases in the city-state to 1,375.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) called on Monday for a pan-European mobile app to track the spread of the new coronavirus instead of the current hodge-podge of apps used in various EU countries which could breach people's privacy rights.

The pace of new coronavirus deaths in Spain slowed for the fourth day on Monday, though a shortage of cremation capacity in Barcelona and the death of soccer coach Pep Guardiola's mother showed the national agony was far from over.

Residents in Lombardy, the Italian region worst hit by the coronavirus, have been forced to scrounge scarce protective face masks or to improvise solutions of their own after authorities ordered anyone moving outside to cover their nose and mouth.

Nigeria has requested $6.9 billion from multilateral lenders to combat the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Africa's biggest economy, the finance minister said on Monday.

It is too early to consider easing measures that restrict the spread of the new coronavirus, Switzerland's health minister said on Monday, even as neighbouring Austria sketched out plans to start loosening a national lockdown.

A Boeing 747 landed in Geneva on Monday with 92 tonnes of protective medical equipment including masks made in China for distribution to 13 Swiss hospitals and pharmaceutical associations as they battle the COVID-19 pandemic.